Debunking Some Odious BHI Claims (rant)

Debunking some odious BHI claims

The average BHI follower is desperate for personal meaning. In this desperate search for meaning, he latches some onto an identity that he imagines will give cosmic significance to the mass enslavement of his ancestors in Africa who were brought to the Americas. So, he identifies with the Israelites in the Hebrew bible, seeking out parallels in his own experience. But it’s not enough to find parallels and meaning in the experience of others (which is wonderful). The parallels to a history of subjugation and exile, and promises of redemption are too tantalizing to ignore, he must make it his own. So, what must the BHI follower do with the pesky FACT that the Israelites (i.e. Jews) already exist, are known, and actively maintain their tradition? He must seek out ways to deny that reality in order to supplant it with his own imagined fantasy wherein he is a proud Israelite out to reclaim his heritage.

How is this accomplished? BHI followers claim that contemporary Jews are not the Israelites of the Hebrew bible. They claim that Jews are a bunch of interlopers or imposters who converted to Judaism in Europe and therefore did not have any of the “prophesied” experiences that the Hebrew bible threatens will occur to the Israelites. In pointing to the experiences that Jews have allegedly not experienced, they point to passages such as Deut. 28:64 and Jeremiah 17:4. Which are basically all passages that contain the threat that should the Jewish nation not uphold its covenant with God then the Jewish nation will be driven out from the Land of Israel, dispersed among the nations, subject alien worship, and forced into slavery.

There are a few aspects to this particular odious claim. First it attempts to demonstrate that Jews are not in fact Israelites they are Khazars. They are not the “seed of Abraham”, they are not of the “bloodlines” of the Israelites. As many of us are already aware, the Khazar hypothesis is roundly condemned as junk-science. There is sufficient genetic, linguistic, and historic evidence to debunk the claim. The Khazar MYTH, also only applies to Ashkenazi Jews. This particular BHI attempt to supplant the existence of Jews fails to erase the existence of all Jews even if somehow the Khazar myth were proven true (which of course it isn’t). Jewish communities have existed in the Middle East and North Africa throughout all the diaspora. Setting aside the fact that Ashkenazi communities were in direct contact with other non-Ashkenazi communities, as is attested by halakhic responsa and letters that circulated between them, and setting aside the fact that the Ashkenazi communities trace themselves to rabbinic forebears with roots in the Babylonian academies, this argument ignores the existence altogether of non-Ashkenazi Jews. Hundreds of thousands, millions of Jews that lived in Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Lebanon, Syria, Italy, Greek, Turkey, Persia, Iraq, Yemen, etc. The existence of these Jews (who by the way have historically freely married with Ashkenazi Jews where/when they interacted) are utterly ignored. Why are they ignored? Because they are a tremendous inconvenience to the narrative the BHI follower is trying to spin for himself. If Jews exist and existed, then his own identity as an Israelite cannot be asserted.

Ah, so what about all that talk in the Hebrew bible of being driven out from the Land of Israel, dispersed among the nations, subject alien worship, and forced into slavery? The BHI follower believes that if he can prove that contemporary Jews had no such experience, they must be not be true Israelites. Forget about trying to point out to him the Babylonian conquest, which dispersed many of our tribes (possibly never to be seen again), and the Roman conquest of Judea, which slaughtered the Jews en masse, and shipped out survivors as slaves to be used in the Roman empire. Forget about mentioning the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the pogroms, etc. None of that is relevant to the BHI follower. Surely those events did not happen to what the world sees today as the Jews. Its just those Ashkenazi pretend Jews who never experienced slavery (yeah, forget about pointing out the Nazi extermination and concentration (i.e. slave) camps). The fact that Jews have been exiled, enslaved, chased from country to country, forced to convert of various incarnations of Christianity and Islam, are all irrelevant. Why? It just doesn’t fit the fantasy world the BHI follower is building for himself. It is the black American who has been stripped of his identity and sold into slavery, it is he who must therefore be the true Israelite.

The BHI follower obsesses over race and blood. He attempts to rally passages that discuss the “seed of Abraham” as evidencing that the Hebrew bible too is obsessed with race and blood. The fact of the matter is that Judaism from its inception has always welcomed converts. It is not obsessed with racial purity the way BHIs imagine. The Torah goes out of its way FOURTY SIX times to encourage love for the convert, who becomes just as Jewish as any other Jew. The Torah does not demote the convert but rather affirms that the convert and the native born Jew are equally subject to one law (Lev. 24:22). The Hebrew bible has several famous converts, including Moses’ father-in-law. But the most salient and worthy of mention, was Ruth. Ruth, a member of the hated Moabites converted to Judaism and was welcomed with open arms. She was told that her children would be viewed equally as coming from the seed of our holy patriarchs (Ruth 4:12). In fact, her great-grandson, David, went on to become the king of the Jewish nation and the future messiah of Davidic lineage will similarly therefore descend from a convert. Blood and race just do not factor in whether one is eligible to join in the covenant of Abraham. It’s just not there. BHIs however in their desperate need to feel special about their black identity, and history as slaves, impute to the Torah a kind of racism and obsession over blood that simply isn’t there.

At the end of the day, BHIs are basically just cosplaying or larping as Jews. And that’s all well and fine, people can live in whatever imaginary world of fantasy they damn well please. That’s a salve the vast majority of religions provide, furnishing meaning and purpose to those that so desperately crave it. The only problem is that when in doing so, they start perpetuating narratives that are antisemitic and racist. Narratives that inform real world actions. Narratives that empower horrible acts, such as the recent Jersey City attack. No, not all BHIs are violent and out to commit criminal acts against Jews… but they, as communities and individuals, need to be aware that the bigotry that they are buying into and fomenting can and does lead to vile and depraved behavior that the modern world ought not tolerate, behavior that we as actual true Jews have suffered at the hands of for millennia.